REEFER MADNESS IN MASS.

Adults in Massachusetts are forbidden from buying certain
over-the-counter decongestants without first showing identification
and having it logged by the pharmacy. But suddenly this state is
capable of running a full-scale medical marijuana operation safely,
and its citizens can be trusted to use the drug responsibly?

For pete's sake, where are the nanny staters when we really need them?

A bill pending on Beacon Hill would allow sick people to obtain
prescriptions for marijuana and set up 18 distribution centers across
Massachusetts, so that cancer sufferers and others whose pain might
be managed by smoking pot would have easy access to the drug.

And while we're not opposed to the "discussion" about medical
marijuana that is now being called for by several lawmakers, the
truth is that Massachusetts has so far proven ill-prepared even to
deal with a voter referendum that decriminalized possession of "small" amounts.

Pot-related trafficking and violence have inched up since voters
passed Question 2, as the Herald reported last fall, enough to raise
the concerns of law enforcement agencies forced to deal with the fallout.

And while access to these new state dispensaries would be limited to
those with a prescription, does anyone believe that it won't mean
greater access for the average pot-smoker?

"Since the 1930s, we've been fighting marijuana as the killer weed,
and that has to stop," Rep. Frank Smizik, D-Brookline, a sponsor of
the bill, told the Herald last week.

Prosecutors familiar with today's potent product, the one that
gun-toting dealers and buyers have proved willing to kill each other
over, would disagree with him.

This is the same Rep. Smizik who opposed state-licensed casinos
because some gamblers might become addicted. But he and others think
it's perfectly reasonable for the state to get into the dope trade?